Unfit for service

The relationship between national defense, education and fitness is glaringly obvious.

Copyright 2014: Houston Chronicle

Updated 10:58 am, Thursday, July 3, 2014

Photo: Bob Haynes, STR

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With their packs in the forground, members of Baker Company of the Army's 90th Aviation Support Battalion stand in formation during a departure ceremony on Saturday, June 14, 2014, at the Army Reserve Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The 300 members of the battalion will deploy to Kuwait for nine months. (Bob Haynes/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT) less

With their packs in the forground, members of Baker Company of the Army's 90th Aviation Support Battalion stand in formation during a departure ceremony on Saturday, June 14, 2014, at the Army Reserve Center in ... more

Photo: Bob Haynes, STR

Unfit for service

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To fight the Revolutionary War, tailors put down their needles, farmers their hoes, smiths their anvils, carpenters their saws, lawyers their pens to take up arms. The revolutionary soldier mirrored the resilience and determination of the groups allowed to serve, and in President Abraham Lincoln's words left us "a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received."

Much has changed since our nation gained its independence. Not only are we defended by a professional military, we live in a technologically advanced world where many of today's munitions are guided by computers. Now, math and science are in high demand - as the skill of marksmanship acquired from a lifetime of hunting was during the Revolutionary War. But as we approach another Fourth of July, we still hold dear the idea that in an emergency we could expand our armed forces with the citizen soldier as we did during the last two world wars.

It's discouraging, then, to learn that more than two-thirds of America's youth today would fail to qualify for military service. Reasons include excessive weight and educational shortfalls. Youth failing the armed services test in reading and math, "aren't educationally qualified to join the military in any capacity, not just the high-tech jobs," Major Gen. Allen Youngman recently told the Wall Street Journal. He noted that drill sergeants used to be able to "run the weight off a soldier." But not the young people today who show up wanting to serve but who are 50 or more pounds overweight.

The relationship between national defense, education and fitness has been obvious for a long time. In the mid-1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower secured passage of the National Defense Education Act based on the recognition that modern warfare required federal support for public education in science and math. Eisenhower also founded the President's Council on Youth Fitness to encourage American children to be healthy and active after a study showed that American youth were less physically fit than European children.

The disgraceful number of youth unfit for military service today once again highlights the need for our nation to renew its focus on the relationship between our national defense and the education and health of young Americans. The intellectual and physical well-being of our young people are not just important to the defense of the nation. These are some of the key values that we are seeking to defend. If as a nation we don't have a population with the educational and physical strengths required to compete militarily, then what does that say about the American way of life?

"They were a fortress of strength; but what invading foemen could never do the silent artillery of time has done; the levelling of its walls. They are gone...," Lincoln wrote of those who fought for our independence.

Our military has made great progress since the Declaration of Independence by transcending stereotypes based on race and gender and incorporating more talent into the defense of our land.

If we are serious about national defense, we must make sure that youth receive the support they need in order to qualify to defend our country.